Lesnar, Reigns get wins, but one giant loss dominates Royal Rumble

WWE held its annual Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View Sunday in Philadelphia. There was a match of the year candidate … and it wasn’t the Royal Rumble. And there were plenty of ticked-off fans … and they went off before the ring was even half full for the Rumble.

The show was stolen by Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins and John Cena in the Triple Threat match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship.

Shawn Michaels, a.k.a. the Heartbreak Kid, may have been the Showstopper, but he will have company in that realm. Rollins could be known as the Showstealer — and in a losing cause.

Check out Rollins putting Lesnar through the Spanish announce table.

Lesnar "somehow" managed to recover — announcer Michael Cole said the champ had suffered a broken rib — and came back to pin Rollins and retain his title.

In the actual Royal Rumble itself, the result was not surprising — Roman Reigns was expected to reign, and he did that with some help from The Rock.

The Rumble concept has 30 competitors overall, with two starting and more wrestlers entering individually at set intervals.

There were the usual surprise entrants — Bubba Ray Dudley, the Boogeyman and Diamond Dallas Page.

Reigns, however, was ready for Rusev and made short work of the "Russian" to end the Rumble and earn himself a championship shot at Lesnar — or whoever is champion — in WrestleMania 31, which will be held March 29 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Despite the action, the crowd in Philadelphia — a pro wrestling hotbed — wasn’t exactly pleased with the night’s events as the evening’s most popular wrestler was eliminated in the Rumble.

Daniel Bryan, who won the championship last year at WrestleMania before being sidelined for a long period due to injury, entered the ring as Rumbler No. 10. He avoided elimination by Rusev, but was quickly knocked out of the contest by Bray Wyatt.

For the rest of the Rumble, fans in the arena continued to chant Bryan’s name and boo every other combatant as he made his way to the ring.

Of course, that story along with all the others will be continued as WWE plots its build for its signature event, WrestleMania.